Awf ibn Malik al-Ashja'i

A Companion of the Ashja' whom Ibn Ishaq knows only through one report, which he relates from himself, from the expedition of Dhat al-Salasil, with the chain of Yazid ibn Abi Habib from one who related it to him. ¹

Awf says that he accompanied Abu Bakr and Umar on that expedition. They passed by people who had slaughtered a camel and could not divide it; he was a skilled butcher, so he made a condition on them of a tenth of it, on condition that he divide it. He took the two blades and cut it up on the spot, and carried his share to his companions, who cooked it and ate it. ¹ When Abu Bakr and Umar asked him where the meat came from and he told them, they said: "By God, you did not do well when you fed us this", and then stood and vomited what was in their bellies. ¹ When the people returned, Awf was the first to arrive before the Prophet, and found him praying in his house, and greeted him. The Prophet said: "Awf ibn Malik? The owner of the camel?" and did not add anything to that; one copy has an addition: "and he did not give me anything but the greeting." ¹

The report is short, but it is read in the section on the ethics of earning in holy war: the two shaykhs did not see the wage of the butchery from the spoils as a lawful good for its owner, so they brought it out of their bellies; the Prophet was content with a sign that Awf understood. The editors of the edition explain "al-'Ashir" as meaning that a camel was divided into ten parts. ¹

• Chain: Ibn Ishaq from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, who "was told about Awf ibn Malik"; the intermediary between Yazid and Awf is not named.